The present invention relates to the field of semiconductors, and, more particularly, to semiconductors having enhanced properties based upon energy band engineering and associated methods.
Structures and techniques have been proposed to enhance the performance of semiconductor devices, such as by enhancing the mobility of the charge carriers. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2003/0057416 to Currie et al. discloses strained material layers of silicon, silicon-germanium, and relaxed silicon and also including impurity-free zones that would otherwise cause performance degradation. The resulting biaxial strain in the upper silicon layer alters the carrier mobilities enabling higher speed and/or lower power devices. Published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2003/0034529 to Fitzgerald et al. discloses a CMOS inverter also based upon similar strained silicon technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,472,685 B2 to Takagi discloses a semiconductor device including a silicon and carbon layer sandwiched between silicon layers so that the conduction band and valence band of the second silicon layer receive a tensile strain. Electrons having a smaller effective mass, and which have been induced by an electric field applied to the gate electrode, are confined in the second silicon layer, thus, an n-channel MOSFET is asserted to have a higher mobility.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,204 to Ishibashi et al. discloses a superlattice in which a plurality of layers, less than eight monolayers, and containing a fraction or a binary compound semiconductor layers, are alternately and epitaxially grown. The direction of main current flow is perpendicular to the layers of the superlattice.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,119 to Wang et al. discloses a Si-Ge short period superlattice with higher mobility achieved by reducing alloy scattering in the superlattice. Along these lines, U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,934 to Candelaria discloses an enhanced mobility MOSFET including a channel layer comprising an alloy of silicon and a second material substitutionally present in the silicon lattice at a percentage that places the channel layer under tensile stress.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,262 to Tsu discloses a quantum well structure comprising two barrier regions and a thin epitaxially grown semiconductor layer sandwiched between the barriers. Each barrier region consists of alternate layers of SiO2/Si with a thickness generally in a range of two to six monolayers. A much thicker section of silicon is sandwiched between the barriers.
An article entitled xe2x80x9cPhenomena in silicon nanostructure devicesxe2x80x9d also to Tsu and published online Sept. 6, 2000 by Applied Physics and Materials Science and Processing, pp. 391-402 discloses a semiconductor-atomic superlattice (SAS) of silicon and oxygen. The Si/O superlattice is disclosed as useful in a silicon quantum and light-emitting devices. In particular, a green electromuminescence diode structure was constructed and tested. Current flow in the diode structure is vertical, that is, perpendicular to the layers of the SAS. The disclosed SAS may include semiconductor layers separated by adsorbed species such as oxygen atoms, and CO molecules. The silicon growth beyond the adsorbed monolayer of oxygen is described as epitaxial with a fairly low defect density. One SAS structure included a 1.1 nm thick silicon portion that is about eight atomic layers of silicon, and another structure had twice this thickness of silicon. An article to Luo et al. entitled xe2x80x9cChemical Design of Direct-Gap Light-Emitting Siliconxe2x80x9d published in Physical Review Letters, Vol. 89, No. 7 (Aug. 12, 2002) further discusses the light emitting SAS structures of Tsu.
Published International Application WO 02/103,767A1 to Wang, Tsu and Lofgren, discloses a barrier building block of thin silicon and oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, antimony, arsenic or hydrogen to thereby reduce current flowing vertically through the lattice more than four orders of magnitude. The insulating layer/barrier layer allows for low defect epitaxial silicon to be deposited next to the insulating layer.
Published Great Britain Patent Application 2,347,520 to Mears et al. discloses that principles of Aperiodic Photonic Band-Gap (APBG) structures may be adapted for electronic bandgap engineering. In particular, the application discloses that material parameters, for example, the location of band minima, effective mass, etc, can be tailored to yield new aperiodic materials with desirable band-structure characteristics. Other parameters, such as electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and dielectric permittivity or magnetic permeability are disclosed as also possible to be designed into the material.
Despite considerable efforts at materials engineering to increase the mobility of charge carriers in semiconductor devices, there is still a need for greater improvements. Greater mobility may increase device speed and/or reduce device power consumption. With greater mobility, device performance can also be maintained despite the continued shift to smaller device features.
In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for making a semiconductor device having a higher charge carrier mobility, for example.
This and other objects, features and advantages in accordance with the invention are provided by a method including forming a superlattice including a plurality of stacked groups of layers, and forming regions for causing transport of charge carriers through the superlattice in a parallel direction relative to the stacked groups of layers. Each group of layers of the superlattice may comprise a plurality of stacked base semiconductor monolayers defining a base semiconductor portion and an energy band-modifying layer thereon. Moreover, the energy-band modifying layer may comprise at least one non-semiconductor monolayer constrained within a crystal lattice of adjacent base semiconductor portions so that the superlattice and has a higher charge carrier mobility in the parallel direction than would otherwise be present. The superlattice may also have a common energy band structure therein.
The charge carriers may comprise at least one of electrons and holes. In some preferred embodiments, each base semiconductor portion may comprise silicon, and each energy band-modifying layer may comprise oxygen. Each energy band-modifying layer may be a single monolayer thick, and each base semiconductor portion may be less than eight monolayers thick, such as two to four layers thick, for example, in some embodiments.
As a result of the band engineering achieved by the present invention, the superlattice may further have a substantially direct energy bandgap. The superlattice may further comprise a base semiconductor cap layer on an uppermost group of layers.
In some embodiments, all of the base semiconductor portions may be a same number of monolayers thick. In other embodiments, at least some of the base semiconductor portions may be a different number of monolayers thick. In still other embodiments, all of the base semiconductor portions may be a different number of monolayers thick.
Each non-semiconductor monolayer is desirably thermally stable through deposition of a next layer to thereby facilitate manufacturing. Each base semiconductor portion may comprise a base semiconductor selected from the group consisting of Group IV semiconductors, Group III-V semiconductors, and Group II-VI semiconductors. In addition, each energy band-modifying layer may comprise a non-semiconductor selected from the group consisting of oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine, and carbon-oxygen.
The higher charge carrier mobility may result from a lower conductivity effective mass for the charge carriers in the parallel direction than would otherwise be present. The conductivity effective mass may be less than two-thirds the conductivity effective mass that would otherwise occur. Of course, the superlattice may further comprise at least one type of conductivity dopant therein.